Can it be mid-June already?  We are at the summer solstice.  The days get shorter from here!

It has been a fairly cool spring, and so it seems as if the summer is sneaking up on us.  Now  the first CSA pick ups have happened, and all of our big plantings are in the ground: nightshades, melons, winter squash, and sweet potatoes. Strawberries are rolling in. And yes, flushes of weeds are keeping us busy.

The alternating rain and sun we’ve experienced over the past few weeks has enabled us to  to plant crops at key times and then watch them get watered and grow.  Our sandy soil is a mixed blessing.  The water drains quickly from our fields when we get, say, five inches of rain in one storm like we did a few weeks ago.  On the other hand, if we do have a drought, we must use irrigation to water crops, because our fields dry out quickly.

I want to say a big thank you to the many people who have put in work hours already this season.  With your help, we got the farm up and running fairly smoothly this year and have been staying on top of things.  We’ve had some big groups come out, which is not only fun, but enables us to get a lot done, quickly and efficiently.

I encourage you to continue to come for your work hours even as the summer gets busy with school getting out, vacations to take, and novels to read under a shady tree!  Spreading out your hours over the entire summer enables us to take care of small tasks as well as all of the priorities in the field. And we are able to keep the farm looking good.

See you at the farm!

—Susan